BANKS

The Crystal River Mitigation Bank is a 320.93-acre conservation area in the process of being established to provide compensatory mitigation for wetland impacts located in the Upper Coastal basin. The Bank consists of freshwater marsh wetlands and forested cypress slough wetlands at the lowest elevations with forested wet pine flatwood perimeters and upland sandhill habitat in the higher areas. The bank has been degraded by selective cypress, red cedar, and longleaf pine logging, exotic, nuisance, and cultivar species invasion, inappropriate vegetation due to prolonged lack of fire, including the overabundance of slash pine and oak trees, hydrologic impacts due to the construction of roads and ditches, and trash deposition and other pollution due to unauthorized off-road vehicular access. The restoration of the bank will consist of the cessation of silvicultural activities; removal of trash and pollutants; elimination of unauthorized access; removal of invasive exotic species and nuisance species; thinning shrubs and trees; supplemental planting; and reintroduction of prescribed fire to restore all the wetland and upland buffer habitats to their optimal condition.

The Crystal River Mitigation Bank will have palustrine forested and palustrine emergent credits available approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The Crystal River Mitigation Bank will also have freshwater forested and freshwater herbaceous credits available approved by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). The Mitigation Service Area is in the Crystal-Pithlachascotee watershed. The Crystal-Pithlachascotee watershed is known as the Upper Coastal Drainage Basin for Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) permitting with SWFWMD.